1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to harm-free inspection of avian hatchlings to make a gender finding and, more particularly, to using ultrasound inspection to make the gender finding and in consequence of the finding sorting the hatchlings in at least two and preferably three or more categories.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.
2. Prior Art
It is known to use nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of avian eggs to make a sex and possibly fertility determination. U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,080xe2x80x94Reynnells et al. However the process of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of avian eggs to make a non-invasive determination of any kind will be beset with problems.
The MRI equipment requires a very high capital investment and has unproven reliability. The economics of egg producing operations do not allow purchase of a back up system or expensive components in case of failures of the main system. The MRI equipment is stationed to catch eggs in transit during egg transfer operations. Egg transfer operations cannot be idled for even thirty (30) minutes or else thousands to tens of thousands of eggs will spoil.
The MRI image is in fact a virtually perfect slice of the egg through a given plane. However, the internal structures that allow a sex or fertility determination are hard to make out in such a perfect slice. Indeed U.S. patent of Reynnells et al. discloses quite distinctly how the egg must be oriented in a just so orientation, and then multiple images are taken on 0.5 mm spacings (ie., 50 slices per inch). After that, the best slice has to be determined because next, analysis requires finding a reference marker (eg., eyes or eye sockets) away from which origin a succeeding finding of the sex marker is paced.
It is reported that the MRI process requires cooling the eggs temporarily until the images are obtained. Eg., U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,080xe2x80x94Reynnells et al. Seasoned egg production workers are skeptical of that. Long custom has been to keep eggs in a carefully regulated environment of controlled warmth and humidity. Also, the nuclear MRI radiation just might be worrisome as a death ray to the germ of fresh eggs from the brood farm.
If egg production operations would consider adopting MRI techniques, they""d next have to face paying MRI certified operators at pay scales really unfamiliar in the egg production world.
In sum, the MRI process appears to be an ivory tower solution to a down and dirty problem. State of the art brood farms are known to produce a million (1,000,000) eggs a day. Yet margins are razor thin. The requirement for reliability in the methods relied on is paramount.
The investment in an MRI inspection process costs top dollar. Yet if the MRI inspection equipment goes out then the whole efficiency of the operation is impeded. If an MRI apparatus including its coil went down, it would simply have been cost prohibitive to own a back up in case of failures. There would be no reserve equipment to switch to or change out to in case of failures.
Given the foregoing seasoned veterans are skeptical of the feasibility of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in poultry operations. The technology appears best left in hospitals where the throughput rate might be one to ten (1 to 10) patients an hour rather than millions of eggs a day.
Nevertheless, efficiency and optimization are paramount in poultry operations. Accordingly, poultry operations would benefit from any reasonably cost-justifiable method for automated, hatchling gender determination.
What is needed is an improvement in determining hatchling gender which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.
It is an object of the invention to examine avian hatchlings by ultrasound probes to make a finding of gender.
It is another object of the invention to examine avian hatchlings with an ultrasound signal targeted at the vent or cloaca of the avian hatchlings in order to search for organs or anatomical structure there characteristic of gender.
It is an additional object of the invention to analyze the information signal with automatic processing means to obviate the need for human intervention in making the gender determination.
It is an alternate object of the invention to utilize the automatic processing means to provide control for automatic sorting of the examined hatchlings to thereby obviate the need for human intervention with both determining and sorting avian hatchlings by gender.
It is a further object of the invention to accomplish the foregoing with either contact or non-contact ultrasound transducers operating in pulse-echo mode.
These and other aspects and objects are provided according to the invention in a method and apparatus for sorting avian hatchlings by gender comprising the following steps. Preliminarily, there is the provision of a plurality of avian hatchlings. Ultrasonic energy is beamed at the vent or cloaca of each hatchling to produce a detectable signal from anatomical structure associated with the vent. As a result, gender is determined from analysis of the signal by one or more processing units and then sorting is accomplished on that determination by one or more of the same processors.
By one alternate embodiment of the invention, the step of beaming ultrasonic energy comprises contacting a contact probe against the vent to operate in pulse-echo mode. This step of contacting the contact probe against the vent might further include providing an intermediate, flowable medium therebetween to eliminate air and/or provide an acoustic couple between the probe and couple.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the step of beaming ultrasonic energy comprises aiming a non-contact pulse-echo probe at the vent. By either embodiment, the detectable signal is preferably analyzed for the presence or absence of a characteristic of male gender. Typically the characteristic of male gender comprises structure of the phallus.
Further other detail of the invention might include hanging the hatchlings under examination as upside down from an apparatus provided with a source for beaming the ultrasonic energy at the vent. Whereby the apparatus automatically sorts the hatchlings to respective output conveyors by dropping the examined hatchlings down chutes which direct them toward respective single sex conveyors or the like. Certain ones of the hatchlings might be determined as defective and thus directed toward a waste conveyor or the like. Indeed, for industries concentrating in egg-laying operations, every hatchling not qualified as a female free of defects might be removed as waste.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.